HomeHealthNo Amount of Aid by the UN Can Replace the Unfulfilled Role...

A Venezuelan migrant feeds his son inside a bus in Huaquillas, Ecuador, Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, as they wait to be transported to Peru. Thousands of Venezuelans are crossing into Peru hours before authorities begin enforcing stiffer rules that will make entering the South American nation more difficult. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

No Amount of Aid by the UN Can Replace the Unfulfilled Role of the State… But It Helps

This week the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) announced it will send Venezuela a little over USD 9 million in humanitarian aid, placing it as the only Latin American country among the top 20 recipients of aid in 2018. The announcement comes as a surprise, as it contradicts government officials’ and agencies’ repeated mantra: that there’s no such thing as a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

The decision is significant in several ways, but mainly because it’s the first time that Venezuela receives humanitarian aid since the CERF’s creation back in 2005.

CERF announced it will send Venezuela a little over USD 9 million in humanitarian aid, placing it as the only Latin American country among the top 20 recipients of aid in 2018.

It also signals a welcomed move within UN ranks, as it’s finally moving ahead with delivering humanitarian relief in the face of the deepening crisis. Up until now, the hands of the UN humanitarian machinery had been tied when it came to Venezuela as it didn’t fall into the general categories where they are usually mandated to act: natural disasters and armed conflicts. Also, the Venezuelan government has made it clear that it wouldn’t tolerate the situation to be labeled as a humanitarian emergency, under the argument that it would open the door to a military invasion masked as humanitarian intervention. In fact, Maduro has systematicallyrejected whatever humanitarian aid is offered, even when faced with mounting demands by civil society organizations’ to accept it in order to contain the damages of the health and food crisis, and 22 experts from 12 international organizations acknowledging the existence of a humanitarian crisis.

Thus, the UN has been limited to work in the margins of the crisis assisting those crossing the borders through Colombia or Brazil. To help with these efforts of dealing with the surge of Venezuelan migrants, earlier this year the CERF made another, also unprecedented, disbursement of USD 6.2 million to address what was labeled as the “Venezuela Regional Refugee and Migration Crisis.”

The $9.2 million approved for Venezuela will be channeledthrough the five UN agencies already on the ground (UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, UNHCR and IOM) within their respective existing cooperation frameworks with the Venezuelan government. The biggest chunk (nearly 40%) will be directed to the deeply deteriorated health sector, followed by nutrition programs for children under five years old and pregnant and lactating mothers.

There’s no question that this decision made by the UN’s Emergency Relief coordinator comes as a respite to hunger and disease-stricken Venezuela. It’s also a de facto recognition of how dire the situation is on the ground, whether Maduro likes it or not. But my inner Debby Downer tells me we must look at this in perspective before we ultimately fool ourselves into thinking that this is some kind of“beginning of the end.”

From a sheer numbers perspective, the amount is really a band aid for the many wounds Venezuela needs to heal. For example, the estimated first-year budget of a plan prepared by UNAIDS, WHO and the Ministry of Healthto respond to the HIV, tuberculosis and malaria crises is $44.5 million, excluding costs associated to strengthening the structural capacities of the health system for providing services, something that will obviously require substantive investments. Andaccording to UNHCR, the financial requirements for the Venezuelan migration crisis stands at $ 46 million as of November 2018.

It’s a de facto recognition of how dire the situation is on the ground, whether Maduro likes it or not.

We need to look at this for what it is: a helping hand to deal with the crisis. Susana Raffalli, leading nutrition and emergencies expert, warned us that the expectations of a general improvement of the health crisis should be kept in check, as the aid will most probably reach only those in need of urgent assistance.

The facts that the funds have been approved and, most importantly, that the aid was made public, open a number of questions:

Have Maduro and his acolytes finally come to understand that humanitarian assistance is not an appendix of their deeply-hated notion of humanitarian intervention?

Is Maduro finally recognizing the severity of a crisis he can no longer deny?

Or should we look elsewhere, to perhaps private meetings and talks, where he’s unashamedly using the humanitarian crisis as a bargain chip for political gains?

Was he put under pressure to accept the aid or is Maduro opening this window in exchange for something else?

For now, the UN’s decision to send aid and the regime’s tacit acceptance of it open a new chapter in the humanitarian emergency, one that brings a ray of hope to many. But perhaps it should be useful to remind ourselves that no amount of aid will ever replace the State’s role in addressing our social and economic problems and that the need for deep, structural changes is still there.

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The Chavista regime might start to accept these humanitarian donations simply because they can steal some of it and the rest helps to stabilize them and consolidate them in power.

Much like the billions that come in Remesas. It’s the Cuban recipe to stay in power forever. Kick everyone out, let them work and send money back, while we continue doing nothing and getting even richer. Nice plan, huh.

@Bolichico in NY: In addition, please read any current news of African countries and you’ll see that humanitarian aid from UN or any ONG, even from the infamous international Red Cross are plagued with behind the scenes special concessions. They negotiate territory for money. So $9 Millions to help who? And in exchange for what? We are paying that from our tax dollars. And it won’t help anyone. In these days even Docteurs Sans Frontières is simply a bag of communists trying to destabilize democracies in Europe.

It would be nice if people who commented here would try to help bring about positive change in Venezuela.
Hint: it does not happen by typing stuff in here. How? It is very very difficult but basically one of the possibilities is
financially supporting those who give help in Venezuela or writing to the media abroad, organising protests in front of the embassies of the regime, etc.

Agree Kep. I write letters to the editor at least one a month in our small town paper in MO. The more people know the more we educate folks and the more financial inputs go to getting help to Venezuelan aid organizations. We have to provide solutions and assistance.

After I heard about MRubio’s projects, I collected 50 vegetable seed packets and sent them to a group in Yaracuy. I also sent the donation links from humanitarian groups mentioned on this site to a list of about 1K people outside Venezuela who have an interest in the country.

That’s a very broad brush you paint with Kepler. Curious as to what sources you use to generate such an all encompassing condemnation. My contributions have always been anonymous, if anybody finds out about them I probably will have my indulgences erased by the Pope. As to the UN actually providing any assistance, if you’re ever in need there are lines you avoid, the lines for help from the UN or Red Cross. Folks with extensive experience on the ground where humans suffer will tell you how a few get very wealthy via UN and RedCross. The massive aid that actually is delivered is primarily from religious organizations.

Socialists are bureaucrats. More bureaus, more control, more “jibs”, more money diverted to The Government. Kind of like the law of entropy, mud settling on the bottom of a pond, algae growing on it, turtles burrowing in it digging up clams, soft-body worms and other stuff making their homes in it. Seems like the bigger the organization, the more bureaucracy it forms, calcium deposits hardening into channels, and the money flows because it is “established”.

My inner Debbie Downer sits across the table from me and says, “But won’t aid just perpetuate the problem? The regime will say their economic plan is working, and they’re winning the Guerra Economica.” Economics says that 40% of the population will believe the regime’s propaganda … but 60% will see it as a relief, and that’s where the profit of it all is. Hopefully CERF will do a decent job, and maybe even label everything “Hecho en El Imperio.” Debbie Downer: “Yeah, right. Hecho en El Imperio is what everybody wants … and for free, too. You’ll be a big hit.”

@Kepler. It would but nice if the people that are socialists here would admit they are supporting the wrong political ideology. It’s socialism that created this enormous misery, it will be capitalism that will eventually save Venezuela.